Thanks for the views I am sorry for not updating it sooner , since people are reading this I will do better.
I celebrate my 52nd Birthday today. I am calling it 26th.
No big deal really.
Just another day, however I have reflected somewhat.
Minor ice storm hit so we held off new baby pigs arriving. Madonna had a 4 hour delay, so it was safer that way. Good choice as roads cleared by 10 am.
This was our second group for this new turn. Still cleaning up two rooms. 500 head rooms.
They will be cleaner than a lot of peoples homes when the pigs arrive.

All on order to keep pigs healthy and promote food safety.
Keeping the crews goals on track of doing  an  expert job at cleanliness.
It can be hard setting a good example and making sure it is followed.
Training a new manager to take my place so I can do some traveling and not worry about things and keep them running smooth.
Is the biggest challenge so far.

I am continually amazed at the chatter about limiting our choices of production of food and doing things to make food production more expensive.
I will ponder this and write later.

I plan to celebrate with dinner tonight and have surf and turf at a near by lodge very good grilled steak and grilled shrimp.
Our own beef arrives soon from the processor. Many times we have a meal completely raised on our farm.
A matter of pride mainly you must realize that most people either couldn't or would be able to do that.
So it is unimaginable that some would limit our choice to bring wholesome safe , abundant food to your table.
While many are still hungry even in the US and your county.
More later.

Thanks for reading .

Neil
Bacon Farmer

Back to colder weather, stuck working in the farm office. Being a Farmer of any kind requires that you do many chores and many skills sometimes we need to hire professionals to do a better job. Bookkeeping is one of those skills we need to hire. We must still do a lot ourselves. A smaller producer cant afford some of these, so we do what we can and leave the rest to the pros.
Bookkeeping and paying bills and keeping order of the expenses so you know where you lost money and made money and also who earned their pay.
Today we have a lot of so called pros that we hire like to advise us about allot of issues.
Some want us to relate to you like growing food is just another job as far as consumers are concerned . So we are not special and it s no big deal. Then others claim Ag to be a high tech analytical profession. Which it can be. We have two sides of a coin here.Am I a Bacon Farmer or a Pork Entrepreneur!
 I like Land and Commodity Investor specializing in Protein Production.
Anyway all you need to know we are all different and we must care for our animals to help them produce so we can pay our bills and raise our families.It is basic.But we have outside influences that see fit to complicate matters.
Hungry people don't  care how it is done they only want, and need our products. As demand grows for our food as populations grow they will buy it,which will make it cost more to you.
I hope I am getting my point across to you.
No college here, friend just doing my best.
On my own. I cant hire everything done like having a  PR firm.  LOL as they say.
A Bacon Farmer Today

Lot of weather challenges with cold , snow and now a warm up. We need the rain still our pond is down over half , this is  important because I use the water for the pigs to drink.It is chlorinated, on site and tested by an EPA certified lab and is safe to drink for human consumption, it is also very soft We shower in it as well. Shower you say? Yes it is part of our bio-security program to keep out herd healthy.Part of the bio-security is due to the fact we are a production nucleus multiplier herd. Which means we grow our female pigs to be new mother pigs in other herds all over the country and now world. It is important because our females will be the foundation of the herd of our customers.We are part of a family owned and operated farm where we and other farmers raise pigs for  another family's farm, we get paid for doing so. Therefore we don't own the pigs.But in every way we treat them as if they were our own.
We take pride in raising them and sending them to their new homes. As well as if they aren't needed for replacements females we take pride in the wholesome food products they produce, for your table.
That makes being a Bacon Farmer Fun to be!

Busy couple of weeks, Bringing in new babies pigs ,sending future new mamma's to new homes and sending market hogs to market. Busy life of a Bacon Farmer. (That what we call ourselves now instead of Pork Producers) Anyway my son and daughter have been home since before Christmas from college so I have had them help some. Even though they wont be involved in the bacon business it fun to work together for a short time. Soon we will be back to our routines , but it is enjoyable  for now. Cold weather brings challenges we have forgotten about over the last two years , it could be colder too. Fixing heaters and ventilation and little things that can happen, these you learn as you go no one writes a manual for this stuff.So training a new person to be able to handle things like this is a new challenge, letting go so you can get away is a challenge as well,after all you think you are irreplaceable but mostly you are,in matters of business and such.
My wife is retiring and I owe her some time. so I am training a young man to do more of my daily chores. So I can be away some. Also there is that bucket list of my own.
The next weeks will bring business and office work yuck! Power washing is more fun! (washing the barns out between groups)
RhonFarm LLC will be up and running and some changes will be made but mostly the same stuff will go on, maybe that new barn roof my wife keeps on me about...more to come on that one.......history and the future.. should be interesting , as well as how we provide expert animal care and provide you with food and Bacon!!!!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.
Neil

I am going to end the year by starting over. This summer was quite the challenge, dry weather , heat , heat, dry weather. We had good production as we had enough rain when we needed it.
It brought the end of a sheep production career. My daughter received her FFA degree and finished her FFA career , gladly exiting the sheep industry. ya!. My son received a really good scholarship. from the Ag world. I am learning how to agvocate instead of aggravate. That means relate Ag to non Ag people. or tell people about where their food comes from.
We are healthy and Blessed.
We are involved with helping to start a mission church and surrounded by a few really great people to work together on it. Wilmington Lutheran Mission Church a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church or LCMS. It is hard to leave your home church for 22 years and begin a new. but that is what God demands we do. The great thing is  I am reminded of God's sense of humor when I am a secretary of the congregation., I really just pay attention and sign stuff!. A lot of cool stuff has been happening!
My wife is planning her retirement from nursing, And thinking up ways for me to stay busier!
I have a couple good fellows to help on the farm Brock Allen aka Barrack he is stepping up and learning and Butch Walters mower man extraordinaire  and nephew Dave is there to help too, A welder by trade he fixes stuff the pigs and I break, He can fabricate just about anything, even fish stories. call if you need him. I hope you read this Dave, he still calls me Uncle Squeal! His Dad, Ed my only brother 17 years my senior and I finally got to do some fishing together this year and they both hunted deer with us.  I have a lot of good family I could write a book about. I will get to them later this year.
I am struggling with becoming a bacon farmer instead of being a pork producer. Sometimes hard to swallow.We are told that peolpe will be able to relate to us better.
Times change and we must too.
There are a lot of challenges in Farming like this social media bs. But like everything else I am up to it.
I hope you check it out his year maybe kick me a little when I get behind as I agvocate for my career in Agriculture.
That means growing food for my family and yours.
A Merry Christmas and a Blessed  New Year to you and yours.
Neil Rhonemus
RhonFarm